President Trump orders US grounding of 747 Max planes

HEJERE, Ethiopia (AP) — The Latest on The Latest on Ethiopian Airlines crash (all times local):

9:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump says the U.S. is issuing an emergency order grounding all Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 aircraft in the wake of a crash of an Ethiopian Airliner that killed 157 people.

Many nations in the world had already barred the Boeing 737 Max 8 from its airspace, but until now, the Federal Aviation Administration had been saying that it didn’t have any data to show the jets are unsafe.

Trump said Wednesday that the FAA would be making the announcement soon to ground the planes.

He says any plane currently in the air will go to its destination and then be grounded.

Trump says pilots and airlines have been notified.

He says the safety of the American people is of “paramount concern.”

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8:20 p.m.

A spokesman for Germany’s Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation is telling The Associated Press that the agency was asked by Ethiopian authorities to analyze the black boxes from Sunday’s plane crash but declined because it lacked the necessary software.

Spokesman Germout Freitag said Wednesday that he doesn’t know where the black boxes will be sent next.

An Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said flight recorders from the jet will be sent to a European country for analysis because Ethiopia lacks the technology to examine them.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The disaster is the second with a Max 8 plane in just five months and has set off a wave of groundings of the planes around the world.

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7:45 p.m.

A Nigerian official says the country has closed its airspace to the Boeing 737 Max 8.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s personal assistant in a Twitter post cites Nigeria’s aviation minister as saying the model involved in Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash is barred until the cause of the disaster is determined.

And in Mauritania, civil aviation authorities say Mauritania Airlines has halted its use of the model.

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12:05 p.m.

Canada’s transport minister says the country is closing airspace to the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner that killed 157 people.

Canada becomes the latest country to bar the Boeing 737 Max as the investigation into the latest crash, the second in just over five months, is underway.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau said new information they received Wednesday morning in the form of satellite data shows a possible but unproven similarity to a previous Max 8 crash.

Boeing has said it has no reason to pull the popular aircraft from the skies and does not intend to issue new recommendations about the aircraft to customers.

Given the proximity to the U.S Canada’s decision to ground the planes may cause problems for U.S. airlines.

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3:05 p.m.

An Ethiopian Airlines spokesman confirms that the black box from Sunday’s crashed plane will be sent to Europe.

Asrat Begashaw has declined to tell The Associated Press which country will be analyzing the voice and data recorders of the flight.

The plane crashed six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.

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12:45 p.m.

Lion Air has confirmed reports it has put on hold the scheduled delivery of four Boeing 737 Max 8 jets while it waits for the outcome of the Indonesian investigation into its October crash that killed 189 people.

Speaking at a transport ministry news conference in Jakarta about the grounding of Max 8 planes, Lion Air executive Daniel Putut said the airline needs to know the “root cause” of the accident.

Lion Air ordered 222 Boeing Max planes, including 218 of the Max 8 model and four Max 9 planes. It currently has 10 Max 8 planes in its fleet.

Many countries worldwide have grounded Max 8 jets after one operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed on Sunday, killing 157 people.

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12:40 p.m.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand says it has ordered the budget airline Thai Lion Air to suspend flying its Boeing 737 Max planes for seven days while it conducts risk assessments and special training for pilots.

The agency says it will consult with the plane’s maker and designer about safety measures. The suspension begins Thursday. It comes after Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Thai Lion Air is the only Thai airline flying B737 Max models.

The airline is an associate company of Indonesia’s Lion Air, which lost a B737 Max 8 in October shortly after takeoff from Jakarta in a crash that killed 189 people.

The Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority says in a statement it has barred “flying over, landing and takeoff” of Boeing 737 Max aircrafts.

It also says Egypt doesn’t have these aircraft and that they are not part of its future plans.

The announcement cites the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday that killed 157 people on board.

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12:05 p.m.

Lebanon’s state news agency says the country’s civil aviation authority has barred flights by Boeing 737 Max aircraft from landing or flying in Lebanese skies following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner that killed 157 people.

Lebanon becomes the latest country to bar the Boeing 737 Max as investigation into the latest crash, the second in just over five months, is underway.

The decision by Lebanon’s head of civil aviation doesn’t elaborate on the reason for the banning or the duration. The national air carrier mostly operates Airbus.

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11:50 a.m.

Kosovo has barred the Boeing 737 Max 8 and 738 Max 9 airplanes from its airspace following the crash of a similar jetliner in Ethiopia on Sunday in which all 157 on board were killed.

Kosovo’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a Wednesday statement the decision was taken because of “the investigation of the equipment” of the planes, adding that it is effective immediately.

Many airlines around the world have grounded the Boeing jetliner and many countries, including the entire European Union have barred the plane from their airspace, leaving the United States as one of the few areas where the plane can fly. Two Max 8 jets have had deadly crashes in just five months.

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11:40 a.m.

Norwegian Air Shuttles says it will seek compensation from aircraft maker Boeing after the low-cost carrier grounded its fleet of 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

Carrier spokeswoman Tonje Naess told The Associated Press Wednesday that the Oslo-based airline “should not have any financial burden for a brand new aircraft that will not to be used.”

On Tuesday, Norwegian Air Shuttles grounded its 18 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft on recommendation from European aviation authorities after Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash in which 157 people were killed.

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11:20 a.m.

An Ethiopian Airlines spokesman says the “black box” from the crashed Boeing jet will be sent overseas for analysis but no country has been chosen.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Asrat Begashaw says the airline has not decided where to send the data and voice records of the flight’s last moments.

He says that “we have a range of options. What we can say is we don’t have the capability to probe it here in Ethiopia.”

The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The disaster is the second with a Max 8 plane in just five months and has set off a wave of groundings of the planes around the world.

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10:55 a.m.

Hong Kong will ban the operation of all Boeing 737 Max aircraft “into, out of and over” the key Asian aviation hub beginning at 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) Wednesday.

The announcement from the Civil Aviation Department cited the crash of two of the planes within less than five months and said the ban would continue “until further notice.”

The statement said: “The CAD has been closely monitoring the developments, the investigation progress and the information from relevant aviation authorities.”

It said the CAD had noted that the U.S. Federation Aviation Administration has affirmed the planes’ airworthiness and that investigations were ongoing.

It said the department has been in close contact with the FAA and other the relevant organizations, including the two airlines, SpiceJet of India and Russia’s Globus Airlines, that use the aircraft to operate flights into and out of Hong Kong International Airport.

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10:45 a.m.

Much of the world, including the entire European Union, grounded the Boeing jetliner involved in the Ethiopian Airlines crash or banned it from their airspace, leaving the United States as one of the few remaining operators of the plane involved in two deadly accidents in five months.

The European Aviation Safety Agency took steps to keep the Boeing 737 Max 8 out of the air, joining Asian and Middle Eastern governments and carriers that also had safety concerns in the aftermath of Sunday’s crash, which killed all 157 people on board.

Referring to the Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people last year, European regulators said Tuesday that “similar causes may have contributed to both events.”